The proposed research will continue a program investigating the role of pain tolerance in fear and avoidance of dental work. Pain Tolerance Training (PTT), a variant of Stress Inoculation aimed at increasing tolerance for pain by teaching coping skills, will be compared to Graduated Exposure, a procedure based on Systematic Desensitization and previously found effective in reducing dental avoidance. These procedures will be compared to a group taught PTT skills via a self-help manual with minimal therapist contact. This study will thus compare "self-control" and "deconditioning" strategies for reduction of dental fear and avoidance, and test both procedures' efficacy against an inexpensive alternative. A second study will involve the collection of descriptive data regarding the varied forms in which dental avoidance manifests inself, and development of social learning based treatment strategies tailored to each of these varied problems on a case-by-case basis. Other studies will examine: strategies for increasing clients' abilities to generalize the use of coping skills learned in PTT to new situations; and factors which influence the experience to pain in dentally fearful subjects, including the sounds of the dental drill, the schedule and duration of painful stimuli, and the predictability of timing and intensity of dental stimuli. These studies are steps toward the goal of developing a better understanding of pain experiences attendant to medical and dental procedures, means of coping with that pain and ultimately the development of strategies which are effective in treating and preventing avoidance of and distress during stressful medical and dental procedrues.